They Turned Their Fantasy into Sporting Reality

The true story of a small fishing village that produced one of the country’s top football teams – without having an inch of land for a pitch.

“On our island we loved to watch football. But no one had actually ever played it.”

On a floating village off the rocky island of Koh Panyee, a group of football-mad children decide they must form their own team. The lack of dry land doesn’t stop them -old fishing vessels and pieces of driftwood are turned into a self-made, floating pitch. Says the narrator: “The ball went into the water very often…and so did we.”

Playing on the slippery pontoon pitch hones their skills - and before long, they’ve become one of Thailand’s top football clubs.

It’s the re-telling of a true story that’s gained over a million hits on YouTube, and it’s proving to be a successful campaign for TMB (formerly known as the Thai Military Bank) - one of the country’s largest retail banks.

The creative team behind the bank’s “Make the difference” is part-Thai, part-farang – but apparently fully authentic. Said director Matt Devine of Australian production house The Glue Society: “We wanted to create a story which mirrored the charm of the people and the magic of the landscape. And to create authenticity, we chose to use local kids from the island to star in the film. This added to the challenge of shooting on water, completely in Thai – but we felt the story would be more powerfully told by recreating and witnessing the challenges the original kids faced.”

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